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Summary of the impact

Professor David Crystal's world-leading research on language policy,
diversity and usage, conducted at Bangor since 2000, has led to a
transformation in terms of public and political attitudes, both nationally
and internationally, towards the nature and use of language in public and
private discourse. In particular, the research has led, since 2008, to an
increased awareness of linguistic diversity, changes to governmental
policies on language, and the development of the world's first targeted
online advertising technology, which today indexes billions of impressions
across 11 languages to provide real-time data services in the emerging
online advertising world.

Underpinning research

The research underpinning this case study is that published by Professor
David Crystal (OBE, Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow of the Learned
Society of Wales) as Professor of Linguistics between 2000 to 2008 at
Bangor University.

Crystal's research focused on three related areas relevant to the impact
case study. The first concerned the nature of language usage, the dangers
of prescriptivism, and the nature and development of the English language;
exemplars include The Stories of English,[3.1] and The
Fight for English[3.2]. The second area relates the
cultural value and significance attached to linguistic diversity, and the
negative impact on a culture when a language dies out, represented by his
book Language Death[3.3]. A further aspect of Crystal's
research on linguistic diversity focused on new media, as exemplified by Language
and the Internet[3.4], also submitted in RAE2008. The third
area concerns Crystal's development of a semantic content classification
schema for improving online search, leading a team of over 40
lexicographers, between 1998 and 2004, to assign lexical senses to
knowledge categories [3.5, 3.6]. The resulting Global Data Model
was patented in the UK in July 2003 (patent no. GB2345771), and in the USA
in December 2007 (patent no. 7305415 B2).

Specific findings

Crystal's research has given rise to four sets of specific findings that
have resulted in significant impact during the current REF census period:

Language usage in communicative contexts, such as in official language
domains: explicit guidelines on best practice in terms of communicative
factors such as the message being conveyed, selection of lexis and
grammatical structures, and avoidance of ambiguities [3.1, 3.4].

Language diversity: demonstrating its benefits to communities,
cultural life and heritage, adding value to the wider economy, and
advocating policies of language maintenance [3.1-3.4].

The English language: a focus on significant variation arising from
historical contexts and socio-political factors, drawing attention to
the dangers of linguistic prescriptivism and an exclusive focus on a
single variety of 'standard' English; there is particular emphasis on a
global perspective, and to the role of new media in enhancing rather
than adversely affecting language [3.1-3.4].

Semantic taxonomy [3.5, 3.6]: the development of a lexical
semantic frame of reference (or 'sense engine') within which an online
classification engine can operate. The aim is to ensure that a web page
is accurately classified, so that its content can be accessed with
confidence by anyone using the internet, thus improving relevance and
accuracy in search, appropriateness in advertising placement, and
protection against insensitive or objectionable subject-matter.

References to the research

[3.1] Crystal, David (2005). The Stories of English.
London: Penguin. Submitted as part of Bangor's RAE2008 submission. A copy
of this output is available on request.

[3.2] Crystal, David (2006). The Fight for English: How language
pundits ate, shot, and left. Oxford University Press. A copy of this
output is available on request.

[3.3] Crystal, David (2000). Language Death. Cambridge
University Press. Submitted as part of Bangor's RAE2001 submission. A copy
of this output is available on request.

[3.4] Crystal, David (2006). Language and the Internet.
Cambridge University Press, 2nd edn. Submitted as part of Bangor's RAE2008
submission. A copy of this output is available on request.

[3.5] Crystal, David (2008). 'Who pays the piper calls the tune:
changing linguistic goals in the service of industry. A case study'. In D
Prys and B Williams (eds), Global Understanding in Multilingual,
Multimodal and Multimedia Contexts (Bangor: Language Technologies
Unit) pp. 39-46. A copy of this output is available on request.

Details of the impact

Crystal's research has led to far reaching and significant impacts on
governmental policies relating to language usage, planning and
maintenance, at both national and international level [3.1, 3.2].

During the REF census period, for instance, Crystal's research has
impacted on the way UK governmental ministries deploy language in
communicating with the general public — part of the so-called "plain
English campaign" conducted under the UK Government's Public
Administration Select Committee. A public consultation document on the
state of Local Government Improvement and Development 2001-2010 entitled "The
state of the language" [5.1] was circulated by the Select
Committee. This document relied, in large part, on Crystal's research on
language usage, especially his findings relating to official language. He
was subsequently invited, as one of four experts, and the only linguist,
to appear before the Select Committee at the House of Commons (9th
July 2009) [5.2]. He provided advice on the issue of official
language use, and ways to improve linguistic and communication strategies,
by government, local and national, in official communications with the
general public. The ensuing report "Bad Language: The Use and Abuse of
Official Language" (30 Nov. 2009), [5.3] urges "politicians
and public servants to use language that is clear, honest and
understandable" and relies heavily on Crystal's expertise: Crystal is the
only one of the expert witnesses consulted cited in the report (56
citations). The ensuing impact on language usage was felt UK-wide
throughout the civil service, which was invited to adopt the report's
recommendation.

2. Impact on public awareness and greater understanding of the role
and value of linguistic diversity in culture and society

Secondly, Crystal's research has significantly enhanced public awareness
and understanding of the nature and value of linguistic change and
diversity. This impact is evidenced by Crystal's dissemination of his
research findings and engagement with the general public. Since 2008,
Crystal has published seven books translating his research for a general
audience, with a common theme of the role and value of linguistic
diversity. Several of these have been translated, such as Txting: the
gr8 db8 (2008, Oxford: OUP), which appeared in Chinese since (2010).
He has made over 100 invited TV/radio appearances to comment and/or report
on specific issues relating to language diversity, as well as many invited
podcasts. These include a BBC Newsnight feature with Jeremy Paxman
(first aired Nov 2008); an appearance on BBC4's It's only a theory
(first aired Oct 2009); and recordings for the British Library. Some of
his broadcasts, have subsequently been deposited on YouTube, attracting
even greater exposure [5.4]. According to YouTube's statistics on
typical viewers (by age and gender), the viewers across these YouTube
postings are predominantly (35-54 year old) men, and (45-54 year old)
women: distinctly above the usual age for university students. Viewing
figures (>100,000K [5.4]) reveal that viewings have steadily
increased over time and that almost every country that has internet access
has viewed his presentations, with some of the postings having the highest
proportion of hits in Australia, Spain and parts of South America,
demonstrating worldwide reach of his work. Further public engagement can
be found in news coverage, such as, for example, in the Guardian, BBC and
internationally in the Economist, Huffington Post and on Minnesota Public
Radio. Crystal's public engagement extends to popular media, such as his
play Living On (1998) on the plight of minority languages, which
has been staged by various amateur dramatic companies worldwide, and as
far afield as Yerevan State University in Armenia (2012) [5.5].

From Nov 2010 to April 2011, Crystal co-curated a major exhibition at the
British Library in London. Evolving English: one language, many voices,
was the first time the Library had presented an exhibition on the English
language and the planning and selection of content relied heavily on
Crystal's research. He provided the audio examples of earlier periods of
English used in the exhibition and wrote the accompanying book with the
same name (London: British Library, 2010). It proved to be the
best-attended winter exhibition the Library had ever put on. Over 10,000
visitors that attended the exhibition contributed a recording of their
spoken English to the British Library's Sound Archive, which can still be
enjoyed online [5.6].

3. Global commercial impact in internet advertising applications

In 2001, together with David Saunders, Crystal set up his company Crystal
Semantics, with the aim of developing lexical products, including the
Global Data Model. Uniquely using context, human linguistic intuition and
semantic relationships between words, this led ultimately to the
development of the patented Sense Engine™, which provides the basis of a
suite of targeted online technology solutions that currently lead the
field in web-based advertising to make advertisements relevant to the
subject of each individual webpage.

In 2006, Crystal sold Crystal Semantics to Ad Pepper Media International
— one of the world's largest online advertising technology solutions
providers, with a reach of over 4 billion monthly impressions of web and
email. Ad Pepper incorporated the Sense Engine as a reference frame into
two new web advertising technologies: The iSense system (launched
September 2007 in Europe, March 2008 in North America) provided the online
advertising community with the world's first targeted advertising system,
allowing adverts to load on the most contextually appropriate webpages,
and in the most appropriate locations, maximising the potential success of
the advert. The precise advert placement facilitated by iSense has
transformed the digital advertising industry. It is currently is available
in 11 languages, has won numerous awards and is applied by the world's
leading brands including Volkswagen, IBM and Philips (more brand
references listed on Ad Pepper's website [5.7]). In 2009, Ad
Pepper launched the SiteScreen system [5.8, 5.9] that also
incorporates Crystal's Sense Engine, protecting advertisers by identifying
potentially objectionable content in various categories and thereby making
and end to ads loading next to such content.